Blackfalds Mayor Jamie Hoover says the pandemic brought council to make "difficult decisions" but the Town prevailed in infrastructure and keeping facilities open throughout the year. (Town of Blackfalds)

By Alessia Proietti

Reviewing 2021 and doing well

Counting blessings with Blackfalds Mayor Jamie Hoover

Dec 29, 2021 | 2:14 PM

After another difficult year, Blackfalds Mayor Jamie Hoover says the community is doing well, considering the challenges out there.

“I think that we need to count our blessings,” says Hoover.

Mayor Hoover points first and foremost to the amount of infrastructure built in the community, such as completion of the Eagle Builders Centre arena, which hosts the town’s junior A hockey team, the Blackfalds Bulldogs. Others include the new Servus Union Public Library location, expected to be operational before Christmas, a road realignment leading to the arena, and a plan to build an outdoor gathering space in the upcoming spring.

“We’ve been one of the most quickly growing municipalities in Canada,” says Hoover. “It kind of looks like the centre of our town is under construction for the next couple of years.”

The mayor was especially proud of the year’s progress with Alberta’s education minister in developing the town’s first high school. With the design released and road construction underway, he expects the project to be completed in the next two years.

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“For a community of our size, over 11,000 people not having a high school was a big challenge. That’s a big achievement,” he says.

“From our council’s perspective, just simply integrating this new high school, bringing our students back into the community and giving those students an identity and a place that they belong in our community again.”

Like most of the world, the pandemic was their biggest challenge, he says, leading the town to making some “difficult decisions”.

“We didn’t jump to conclusions in the beginning,” notes Hoover.

Initially choosing not to impose the province’s Restrictions Exemption Program (REP), they did so in November.

“We wanted to make sure that we were trying to find the balance for our residents rather than just what the province felt was the best for everyone,” says Hoover. “Those restrictions change on a regular basis so we felt we gave ourselves an option that we could adapt to particular uses in our town.”

“We managed to keep all our facilities open which is the most important thing.”

The lack of local medical services was also brought to light as a result, shares Hoover. The town responded by opening the new Apollo Health Centre clinic this year, attracting seven more doctors.

Moving forward, the focus for Mayor Hoover is to heal and recover.

“The economy leading into the pandemic wasn’t all that healthy in our province,” says Hoover. “From my perspective, I think there’s a mental health pandemic in our society, not just in our community.”

He intends to look into programs and services for, “people’s mental health, and social wellbeing and spiritual wellbeing, all those things, to improve.”

However, he says he cannot do it alone and that the community must come together again.

“In the beginning, I want to invite people to communicate.”

“It takes a community to heal a community. From my perspective, I’d like to reach out to people that are doing well to help those that aren’t.”

Expressing pride and gratitude for the community initiatives, organizations, clubs and charities throughout the year, the mayor had one shout-out in particular: the Blackfalds Food Bank. Having recently moved to a new facility, he believes it will become the best in the province.

But above all, Mayor Hoover wants to wish residents happy holidays with an important perspective.

“I just want Blackfalds to appreciate the things that we do have. I know that there’s challenges, the last couple of years and 2021 has been a huge challenge, but we’re an amazing community. We’re young, we’re vibrant, and we have a lot of enthusiastic people.”